Preformulation and pharmacokinetic studies on antalarmin: a novel stress inhibitor.

The preformulation, solubilization and pharmacokinetic evaluation of antalarmin, a stress inhibitor, have been conducted. Antalarmin has a poor water solubility of less than 1 microg/mL and is weakly basic with an experimentally determined pK(a) of 5.0. Multiple solubilization approaches including pH-control either alone or in combination with cosolvents, surfactants and complexing agents have been investigated. The applicability of lipid-based systems has also been explored. Four formulations, each with a targeted drug loading capacity of 100 mg/mL, show potential for oral administration. Three of these formulations are aqueous solutions (10% ethanol + 40% propylene glycol; 20% cremophor EL; 20% sulfobutylether-beta-cyclodextrin) each buffered at pH 1. The fourth formulation is a lipid-based formulation comprising of 20% oleic acid, 40% cremophor EL and 40% Labrasol. No precipitation was observed following dilution of the four formulations with water and enzyme free simulated gastric fluid. However, only the lipid-based formulation successfully resisted drug precipitation following dilution with enzyme free simulated intestinal fluid. Pharmacokinetic analysis conducted in rats revealed that the 20% cremophor EL solution formulation has a fivefold higher oral bioavailability compared to a suspension formulation. The lipid-based formulation resulted in over 12-fold higher bioavailability as compared to the suspension formulation, the highest amongst the formulations examined.

Solubility improvement of drugs using N-methyl pyrrolidone.

The solubilization efficiency of N-methyl pyrrolidone (NMP) has been determined and compared to that of ethanol and propylene glycol for 13 poorly soluble drugs. NMP is found to be a more efficient solubilizer for all the drugs studied. The solubility enhancement as high as about 800-fold is obtained in 20% v/v NMP solution as compared to water. The mechanism of drug solubilization by NMP has also been investigated. It is proposed that NMP enhances drug solubility by simultaneously acting as a cosolvent and a complexing agent. A mathematical model is used to estimate the drug solubility in NMP-water mixture, according to which the total solubility enhancement is a sum of the two effects. This model describes the experimental data well and is more accurate than other models. A large and uniform reduction in the surface tension of water as a function of NMP concentration demonstrates its cosolvent effect. The complexation is supported by the fact that it's strength is affected by the temperature and the polarity of the medium. A strong correlation exists between log K (ow) of the drugs and the cosolvency coefficients. The correlation between log K (ow) and the complexation coefficients is weak suggesting that factors such as molecular shape and aromaticity of the drug molecule are significant in determining the complexation strength. This has been confirmed by the absence of a significant complexation between NMP and linear drug-like solutes.

Estimation of the aqueous solubility of weak electrolytes.

Jain and Yalkowsky [Jain, N., Yalkowsky, S.H., 2001. Estimation of the aqueous solubility. I. Application to organic non-electrolytes. J. Pharm. Sci. 90, 234-252.] demonstrated that the general solubility equation (GSE) can be used to estimate the aqueous solubility of organic non-electrolytes. In this study the applicability of the GSE was extended to weak electrolytes. It is demonstrated that the GSE estimates the aqueous solubility of 949 compounds, including 367 weak electrolytes with an AAE of 0.58. It is also shown that the intrinsic solubilities of weak acids for which the pK(a)+log S(w)

Structure determination and characterization of carbendazim hydrochloride dihydrate.

The objective of this study was to synthesize and characterize the hydrochloride salt of carbendazim with the aim of improving the intrinsic solubility of the parent compound. Carbendazim hydrochloride dihydrate was synthesized for the purpose of increasing the aqueous solubility of the parent drug, carbendazim. This was done with the commonly used saturation and cooling method. The structure was determined by single crystal radiograph crystallography, and the hydrochloride salt was found to be a dihydrate. The salt crystallized in a P 2(1) 2(1) 2(1) (#19) space group, which is typical for nonplanar, achiral, and noncentrosymmetric molecules. The asymmetric unit is comprised of 1 molecule each of carbendazim and chloride and 2 water molecules. The carbendazim molecules arrange themselves in a helical structure, with the waters and the chloride molecules in the channel linking the helix. The crystal lattice is held together by numerous hydrogen bonds, as well as van der Waals interactions. The melting point of the salt is 125.6 degrees C. The solubility of the salt is 6.08 mg/mL, which is a thousand-fold increase from the intrinsic solubility (6.11 microg/mL) of the free base.

Bilinear model for the prediction of drug solubility in ethanol/water mixtures.

A new bilinear function that accounts for the disparity between the log-linear and parabolic models for cosolvent solubilization is presented, where ethanol was used as the model cosolvent. This accounts for both the initial and terminal slopes in the ethanol/water solubility profiles of semi-polar solutes. The proposed model has only two fitted parameters sigmaA and sigmaB, which represent the initial and terminal asymptotes in the solubility profiles. The bilinear function can also model the ethanol/water solubility profile more accurately than the log-linear model and a general parabolic model.

Comparison of the octanol/water partition coefficients calculated by ClogP, ACDlogP and KowWin to experimentally determined values.

The experimental octanol/water partition coefficient data, of 108 compounds from the data set [Rytting, E., Lentz, K.A., Chen, X., Qian, F., Venkatesh, S., 2004. A quantitative structure-property relationship for predicting drug solubility in PEG 400/water cosolvent systems. Pharm. Res. 21, 237-244] was compared to calculated values using the computer programs ClogP, ACD/logPdb and KowWin. It was found that all the three programs have a user friendly interface but ClogP appears to be the more accurate predictor of log K(ow).

Estimation of the ethanol/water solubility profile from the octanol/water partition coefficient.

While the ethanol/water solubility profiles of very polar and very non-polar drugs are monotonic, many semi-polar drugs show a maximum solubility at an ethanol volume fraction (f(max)) between 0 and 1. A sigmoidal relationship was observed between the value of f(max) and the log of the octanol/water partition coefficient (logK(ow)) of the solute. This relationship reasonably predicts the value of the volume fraction of ethanol that gives maximum solubility (f(max)). Combining this sigmoidal relationship with the previously reported linear relationship between the logK(ow) and the initial slope of the plot of log solubility versus ethanol composition [Li, A., Yalkowsky, S.H., 1994. Solubility of organic solutes in ethanol/water mixtures. J. Pharm. Sci. 83, 1735-1740] enables the estimation of the total ethanol/water solubility profile.

Deviation from linearity of drug solubility in ethanol/water mixtures.

A new empirical function that describes the deviation from linearity of solubility of a drug in an ethanol/water matrix is applied to the experimental data for 51 compounds. The proposed model is a more accurate predictor of the co-solvent solubility profile than a general third order polynomial with the same number of parameters. Both the root mean square error and average absolute error for the proposed model are significantly lower than those of existing models. The model also accurately predicts the fraction of co-solvent that gives maximum solubility (fmax).